Infineon Prepares for Growth in Hybrid Vehicles

Article By : Infineon Technologies

Significant growth in automotive 48 V systems in the coming years and is expanding its portfolio of suitable power devices.

Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) expects significant growth in automotive 48 V systems in the coming years and is expanding its portfolio of suitable power devices. The chip manufacturer is launching new packages for its 80 V and 100 V MOSFETs with OptiMOS™ 5 technology to meet the different requirements of different 48 V applications. In view of the expected increase in demand, Infineon has set up a new manufacturing process to now produce the chips on its line for 300-millimeter thin-wafers in Dresden, Germany.

Portfolio expansion at both ends of the power spectrum

Infineon offers a variety of 80 V and 100 V MOSFETs in OptiMOS 5 technology with very low, scalable on-state resistances down to 1.2 mΩ. For the core applications of a mild hybrid, for example starter generators, battery switches and DC-DC converters, where high power densities are required, Infineon is expanding its TOLx package family. This is based on the established TOLL (TO-Leadless, 10 mm x 12 mm) product for standard copper substrate PCBs and currents up to 300 A.

In addition, the family comprises the TOLG (TO Leads Gullwing Design) package with identical footprint for Insulated Metal Substrates (IMS) with aluminum core. Since the thermal expansion coefficients of copper and aluminium differ, the use of IMS boards under high thermo-mechanical stress leads to increased stress on the soldered connections between package and PCB. In order to mitigate this stress, the TOLG package is equipped with gullwing leads.

New package for top-side cooling

In the next step, Infineon will expand the TOLx family with a third member that is unique among the competition: the TOLT (TO Leads Top-Side Cooling) package. It enables heat dissipation through top-side cooling via the top of the package instead of via the PCB. This allows an increase in power of more than 20 percent and reduces the necessary cooling effort on the board. The start of volume production of TOLT products is planned for 2021.

Next to the TOLx family, Infineon also expands the package portfolio addressing less power-hungry auxiliaries such as fans and pumps that are also increasingly being transferred to the 48 V supply. Completely new are versions in the small S3O8 package (3.3 mm x 3.3 mm) for lower currents up to 40 A. They complement products with the slightly larger SSO8 package (5 mm x 6 mm) for currents up to 100 A that were added to the portfolio recently.

Mild hybrid drives based on a 48 V supply are a fast and cost-effective way for car manufacturers to achieve lower CO2 fleet emissions. Among other things, they allow a higher recuperation energy compared to a 12 V system and use the energy gained for electrical support of the combustion engine. In addition, a 48 V supply offers performance and efficiency advantages for safety and comfort functions with high current loads, such as stability control or air-conditioning compressors. Depending on the configuration of the drive system and the number of auxiliary units, a mild hybrid can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 15 percent compared to a pure combustion engine.